Star Wars - The Old Republic

Aug 6, 2008

Investment analysis : "EA may climb to the top of the MMO game market"

From a Seeking Alpha article :

However, EA may climb to the top of the MMO game market with the acquisition of VG Holdings, the parent company of game developer BioWare and Pandemic Studios. Although no official press released has been made, BioWare is developing a MMO based in the Star Wars universe that is based on the Knights of the Old Republic video game series. A video game that has requires a monthly fee to play on top of a initial $50 investment plus any future expansion packs based on an intellectual property as popular as Star Wars will generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue by itself.

Source

Aug 5, 2008

LucasArts recruiting MMO tester(s)

From Computerandvideogame.com :

"LucasArts has advertised for a QA Online Tester working out of the Letterman Digital Arts Center in San Francisco, which just confuses the heck out of us.

John Riccitiello confirmed back in July that a KOTOR MMO was on the cards, but so far no official word from either LucasArts or BioWare has emerged.

But BioWare - presumably the lead developer on the project - is making the game in Austin, Texas.

The job application continues to confuse. It calls for the applicant to "to test MMO games for bugs" and "Test the assigned LucasArts games for defects." MMO Games? Plural?

Whatever is going on in the house of Lucas, it's got us beat."

(source)

Jul 31, 2008

How to deal with Jedi in the new Star Wars MMO ?

Since the almost official confirmation of Bioware's MMO projet being a Star Wars Old Republic MMO, debates have started in various places about how the developers should deal with the Jedi issue. The way Jedi were implemented in Star Wars Galaxies brought a lot of problems. What can Bioware do to prevent playable Jedi from ruining the game experience ?

Here are some articles about this :

Jul 27, 2008

Blend Games : KOTOR online confirmed

From a Blend Games article :

You may remember that Lucas Arts and BioWare launched a co-branded website in October and announced they were making an "interactive entertainment product" together. Well, it turns out it's not just any interactive entertainment product - it's a massive multiplayer online game based on the Knights of the Old Republic single player RPG's.

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello confirmed the much-rumored KOTOR MMO in an interview with Portfolio.com at E3 yesterday. He also said the project would be "quite possibly the most anticipated game, full stop, for the industry at the point when we get closer to telling you about it." It's hard to argue with that point given how huge of a franchise Star Wars is. The built-in fan base gives it a good chance of grabbing a lot of customers who haven't even played an MMO before.

Plus there's already been a Star Wars MMO, Star Wars Galaxies, which BioWare and Lucas Arts can use as a sort of case study when they're determining how certain aspects of the Star Wars mythos will translate into gameplay. The biggest issue, something Galaxies struggled with, is determining who's going to be allowed to be Jedi and how powerful will they be compared to non-Force sensitive characters in this game. The KOTOR series was set during the Old Republic when the Jedi were all over the damn place. However, most of them get killed by the Sith between the first and second games in the series. Assuming they set the MMO after the second game, maybe they'll have the Jedi Order in a state of rebuilding. It's safe to say they'll let someone play a Jedi because lightsabers are just too damn cool to only be wielded by NPC's. Maybe they'll screw with everyone's heads by making Jedi the designated healing/buffing class like Paladins in World of Warcraft.

Even though I was a big fan of the first two KOTOR games, I'm still not sure what I think about the idea of a KOTOR MMO. A single player RPG is a completely different experience than an MMO. Part of the appeal of the single player KOTOR games was that I felt like I was starring in my own little Star Wars movie. The biggest strength was its central storyline, which is the very thing MMO's tend to push off into the background in favor of grinding. My tune will likely change once I get some actual details on the game and BioWare's done enough to earn the benefit of the doubt but right now I just keep imagining a Jedi Master sending his Padawan off into the woods to kill 10 boars and bring back their snouts.

> Source

EA confirms new Star Wars MMO

Electronic Arts chief executive John Riccitiello :

"We've got two of the most compelling MMOs in the industry in development," said Riccitiello. The first title, based on the Warhammer property, will launch soon. "And the one that people are dying for us to talk to them about -- in partnership with Lucas, coming out of BioWare, which is, I think, quite possibly the most anticipated game, full stop, for the industry at the point when we get closer to telling you about it."

Does Riccitiello mean the oft rumored Knights of the Old Republic Online? "Yes," he said.

> Source : EA to Play in Knights of the Old Republic

LucasFilm Files New Star Wars Trademarks

From a Kotaku article :

The house that Lucas built has filed for a handful of new trademarks, all Star Wars related, all potentially new names for the oft-rumored Knights of the Old Republic 3, the one that continues to pop up as a new BioWare developed MMO. LucasFilm recently filed trademark applications for Star Wars The Old Republic, The Old Republic, Star Wars Sagas and Star Wars Legends, all of are described as "video game software" and "entertainment services provided on-line by means of global and local area networks."
While that certainly sounds like a new Star Wars MMO and it all matches up nicely with what we've heard from former LucasArts employees, we'll call it rumor for now.